Response from SAF regarding HB1588 in WA

Below is the response I just got from SAF. All I can say, is that hope this play works, including what isn’t being made public.

I’m just not happy with additional precedents being set, state by state, for the deceptively named universal background checks, exceptions or not. But perhaps the right strategy for WA is to trade a small infringement at the expense of the other side giving up a larger infringement. But from a national strategy point of view, I’m not all that sure this is wise.

We’ll see.

Alan Gottlieb statement on HB 1588

First you should know that I do not support Washington House Bill 1588 as it is currently written.

My support for a state universal background check bill must include a substantial victory for gun owners that includes, but is not limited to repealing, prohibiting and destroying the current state handgun registration system and the data base of several million records of gun owners and their firearms that include the type of handguns and the serial numbers.

This would be a huge victory for our gun rights. We would be the first state to repeal a gun registration system. Think about that and what it means for your privacy as a gun owner and the fact that we all know historically that registration leads to confiscation.

In addition, if you have a carry permit you will be exempt from additional background checks. No checks would be required for transfers between family members. If you are a member of an organization like the Washington Arms Collectors that does a background check for membership, you would be exempt from additional checks to buy a firearm at their gun shows.

There are other inclusions that must be made as well that are good for our rights and freedom that need to be in a final bill to have my support.

My guess is that the gun grabbers will not go along with these provisions and kill the bill. If they do the “blood” so to speak is on their hands, not ours.

There are other smart, tactical, political and morally justified reasons why I have taken this position that I do not want to make public at this time. We do have enemies and I am not going to telegraph our strategy to them by spelling out our battle plans.

I enjoy winning our freedoms more than the fight. I wish I can say that about some of my critics who have pre-judged without knowledge what it is that I am doing.

Anyone who knows me knows that for the past forty years my efforts have expanded and protected our right to keep and bear arms from local city councils all the way to the United States Supreme Court.

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One thought on “Response from SAF regarding HB1588 in WA”

Gottlieb says he supports universal preemptively-prove-your-innocence (background checks) if he can get other concessions. Nice concessions, but nowhere near nice enough to compromise individual rights in WA state or to set the example for the grabbers that, “Look! Even Gottlieb and SAF — of Heller fame — think universal background checks are a good idea. So we can go ahead and do it nationally!”

I don’t care what double-top-secret excuses — not to be shared with the likes of us — he claims to have. He just screwed every honest gunnie in the country for the sake of merely hoping he can get the WA registry killed. Whether or not the registry goes, his pro-background check precedent stands, and you can believe that the antis will not let us forget it.